Plasma Pong

Plasma Pong is an indievideo game created by Steve Taylor. In 2007, the game was put on hiatus to respect Atari's Pong trademark; however, according to the official Web site, the author is (as of 06/04/08, per the website's post) working on an updated version.[1][2]

As of October 7, 2015, the original website now just states the following (sic):

Pong is a registered trademark of Atari Interactive Inc. To respect this trademark, Plasma Pong will be down until further notice.

Fear not! The author is working on a new project that will trump Plasma Pong in awesomeness! Stay tuned.

Plasma Pong is a clone of Pong, in which two players control a paddle each, at either side of the screen, volleying a ball between them. The environment is a fluid-like plasma which can be pushed and sucked with the paddles.

There are three game modes in Plasma Pong. In single player, the player combats a progressively smarter AI in a fluid environment where the fluid moves faster and faster, affecting the ball more and more. Multiplayer is little different, with two players typically sharing a single keyboard to play against each other. The sandbox mode, however, gives the player near total access to color, particle, and fluid motion effects, allowing them to simply play around with the game's fluid dynamics engine and see what interesting motions they can create.[3]

Wired News considered Plasma Pong to be one of the best indie games of 2007. They highlighted the complex but manageable gameplay and beautiful graphics, but criticized the occasionally unpredictable ball control.[4]

^Thompson, Clive (2007-02-26). "Best Indie Games 2007". Wired News. Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved 2009-12-04. In essence, Taylor realized that in reskinning Pong, one could revamp not merely the paddles -- but the negative space in the game.